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How much land is needed to promote logistics development?

2020-07-30T23:10:15.433Z


The think tank "Unity Hong Kong Fund" (hereinafter referred to as the Fund) published a research report on Tuesday (28th), pointing out that there is a shortage of land for the logistics industry in Hong Kong. In the future, the development of brownfields in the New Territories will reduce related land use, so a number of suggestions are made.


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Written by: Commentary Editing Room

2020-07-31 07:00

The last update date: 2020-07-31 07:00

The think tank "Unity Hong Kong Fund" (hereinafter referred to as the Fund) published a research report on Tuesday (28th), pointing out that there is a shortage of land for the logistics industry in Hong Kong. In the future, the development of brownfields in the New Territories will reduce related land use. Therefore, it puts forward a number of recommendations to support the sustainable development of the logistics industry, especially Reserve the land that it needs. However, even though the logistics industry has always occupied an important position in Hong Kong’s economy, the development of Hong Kong’s air transport industry has been thriving. However, we have to ignore the declining shipping rate. How much land will be needed for the logistics industry in the future and whether we need the space proposed by the organization? But it is unknown. The government must formulate a detailed blueprint for the development of the logistics industry in order to be able to accurately determine the relevant land demand.

The Fund pointed out that the development of the logistics industry in Hong Kong is facing a serious shortage of land for development. Between 2009 and 2018, the GDP of the trade and logistics industry recorded a 51% increase, but the supply of related industrial land only increased slightly by 8% , Most of which is the growth of brownfields. What's more, the government will develop nearly 390 hectares of brownfields in the future, and the available industrial land is bound to show negative growth. The Fund estimates that to catch up with the industry’s value-added growth, Hong Kong must add 1,300 hectares of industrial land. Even considering that land use efficiency will increase, the shortage will still reach 650 hectares. The fund proposes a number of plans to increase land for the logistics industry, such as the development of multiple strategic logistics hubs to provide 740 to 930 hectares of land, and the relocation of the Kwai Tsing Container Terminal.

Land demand must be estimated roughly

There is no doubt that more land is needed to support the continued development of the logistics industry, and the long-term stagnation of industrial land supply is an indisputable fact. However, whether the current shortage of land for the development of the logistics industry is as serious as estimated by the Fund seems to be questionable. The fund's assumption is quite simple. When the trade and logistics industry increases value growth, the industry has to deal with more goods, which requires more land and space. However, in the past, the logistics industry accounted for 51% of GDP growth, but this does not mean that the relevant land area must be increased by 50%. After all, an increase of only 8% in industrial land in the past was enough to support the logistics industry to achieve the above-mentioned growth. This also teaches people to believe that the industry's demand for land is not as large as imagined.

Of course, to support the continued development of the logistics industry, and even make breakthroughs in economic contribution, it is necessary to provide more development land. The development of air transport in Hong Kong is in the ascendant. In recent years, high-value-added logistics services have become increasingly important. It is absolutely reasonable for the government to provide more land for this purpose. On the other hand, shipping, which was the backbone of the logistics industry in the past, is declining. With the increasingly fierce competition with mainland ports, the global ranking of local container terminals has dropped to eighth last year, and overall throughput has also fallen compared to 10 years ago. 13%. Under this circumstance, Hong Kong's container terminals will undoubtedly rely more on transshipment business, so the demand for space may increase. However, with the competition from mainland ports, whether Hong Kong can maintain its role as a transshipment center in the future does not seem optimistic. In view of this, the government should learn from the painful experience, carefully consider the reform of shipping development direction, and move towards high value-added services. In this way, it seems that a more precise assessment is still needed for the future land demand of the logistics industry.

In recent years, the mainland has encouraged consumption and expanded imports, which has weakened Hong Kong's role as a transit port. (Visual China)

No one "too much" land for development, and compared to the growth in land used by other countries and places in the logistics industry, Hong Kong seems to need to catch up quickly. Even if land is insufficient for Hong Kong, it is a false proposition. However, there are urgent land needs in areas such as housing, commerce, and government facilities. The government needs to be more cautious in planning land use and use precious land resources to their advantage. In this regard, it is very important to accurately estimate the actual land demand for the future development of the logistics industry.

However, regardless of the land demand, the fund's initiative is also worth discussing. The fund proposes to establish dedicated logistics hubs in four places, including artificial islands at the Hong Kong Port of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, Lung Kwu Tan and Tuen Mun West, Northwest New Territories and North New Territories, which provide nearly 740 to 930 hectares. These places already have important industrial and logistics positioning in the government planning, and more good geographical locations such as the artificial island of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and Tuen Mun West (such as near the airport) are reserved for air transportation and modern Logistics development is absolutely reasonable. The government needs to study carefully how much land will be needed in the future logistics industry.

It is not worthwhile to leave the container terminal unattended

In addition, the fund also proposes to relocate the Kwai Tsing Container Terminal on Cheung Chau South Reclamation, and the original site of the terminal will be used for redevelopment. When shipping seems to be a sunset industry, it is also necessary for the government to review the possibility of redevelopment of container terminal land in a timely manner in addition to planning where the relevant industries will go. However, it seems untimely to reclaim the container terminal at Cheung Chau South. Regardless of the cost of reclamation in Cheung Chau South and the development of infrastructure connecting the urban area, the vast scale of construction from reclamation to empty container terminals is expected to take more than ten years. During this period, Hong Kong’s shipping status will only continue to decline, and new Whether the terminal can revive the development of local shipping is still unknown. However, the government has decisively promoted the transformation of the arrow shipping industry in the direction of high value-added. It may not be necessary to build another artificial island to set up the Kwai Tsing Container Terminal. Moreover, as pointed out by different organizations (including funds), there are still many near the Kwai Tsing Container Terminal. The space has not been well used, and the government should give priority to how to re-plan the Kwai Tsing Container Terminal to promote the transformation of the shipping industry.

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Logistics Industry Container Terminals United Hong Kong Foundation 01 Views on Land Supply Land Issues

Source: hk1

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